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Curtailed Meeting Stalls Vote on TIF for Mega-Projects
As a vote loomed on a measure that would block Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s plan to use $1.5 billion in tax-increment financing to subsidize four mega-projects, Monday’s meeting of the City’s Council Finance Committee was recessed until Tuesday morning. The bill would have limited the use of TIF to redevelopment projects in “blighted areas” and property that is “vacant and/or obsolete.”
Opponents of Emanuel’s plan to use TIF for projects such as Related Midwest’s The 78 in the South Loop (pictured) have argued that the administration hasn’t demonstrated the need for such subsidies.
However, Planning and Development Commissioner David Reifman has argued that without $1.5 billion in infrastructure improvements subsidized by new or existing TIFs, all four mega-projects would stall.
“We’re talking about opening up private development in excess of $10 billion or $15 billion that doesn’t exist today, and would not occur without that assistance,” Reifman told the Chicago Sun-Times.
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